1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet-type printer device and, in particular, to an ink jet-type printer device which enables simultaneous assembling and electrical connection of its printer head for jetting ink with its printed circuit plate and simplifies a mounting work of the printer head and the printed circuit plate onto its printer body.
2. Description of Related Art
As a conventional ink jet-type printer device which jets ink for information printing from ink jet nozzles, an on-demand type which can be made compact in size and perform a high speed printing operation is used. This type particularly uses a piezoelectric element or a heater for generating an ink jetting pressure by deforming the piezoelectric element or by vaporizing the ink, respectively.
The ink jet-type printer device using the piezoelectric element for the pressure control includes a plurality of ink passages for passing the ink therethrough from an ink supply source, a plurality of partition walls comprising the piezoelectric elements defining the ink passages, and a printer head having a plurality of electrodes provided on the side faces of the partition walls. With a driving signal from an integrated circuit (IC) including a driving circuit therein being applied to the electrodes of the partition walls corresponding to the ink passage for jetting the ink, the adjacent two of the partition walls deform by shearing to vary the volume of the ink passage, so that the ink in the ink passage jets from the jet nozzle provided at the top end of the ink passage.
In one exemplary ink jet-type printer device for two-color printing shown in FIG. 22, each of printer heads 135 and 136 has a head plate 140 made of a piezoelectric material including a plurality of ink passages therein, a cover plate 147 fixedly attached to cover the ink passages and an ink inlet pipe 148 for supplying the ink from an ink supply source into the ink passages. The printer heads 135 and 136 are fixedly mounted on a carriage 121 by various fixing members (not shown). A printed circuit plate 132 supporting thereon ICs 149 which include driving circuits therein is also fixed on the carriage 121. The printed circuit plate 132 is formed with wiring patterns 154 connected to the ICs 149. Each cover plate 147 is formed with a plurality of leading electrodes 150 which supply electric power to actuators (not shown) provided in correspondence with the ink passages. The leading electrodes 150 and the terminals of the wiring patterns 154 are electrically connected by flexible printed circuit plates (FPC) 110.
According to the ink jet-type printer device shown in FIG. 22, as the printer heads 135 and 136 must be attached to the carriage 121, various fixing members as well as fixing work are required. Further, as the terminals of each wiring pattern 154 formed on the printed circuit plate 132 and the leading electrodes 150 formed on each printer head 147 must be connected electrically through a number of signal lines of the FCC 110 formed in correspondence with the ink passages, the electrical connection of the signal lines on FCC 110 with the corresponding leading electrodes 150 and the wiring pattern 154 is complicated.
In the case where a plurality of printer heads are provided for the color-printing, in particular, the printer heads 135 and 136 must be spaced apart from each other to mount each FPC 110 therebetween. This arrangement results not only in enlarging the size of a printer device but also in a complicated work for accurately fixing the positions of jet nozzles of the printer heads.
In addition, it is also known by JP-A 6-328684 and JP-7-304168 to attach partly by an adhesive the rear end part of a printer head to a printed circuit plate fixed to a carriage and to connect electrically leading electrodes formed on a piezoelectric-type printer head to a wiring pattern formed on a printed circuit plate by corresponding conductive leading wires.
According to this ink jet-type printer device, as the printing head is held fixed to the printed circuit plate only partly at its rear end part, not only the fixing work is required but also fixing strength is likely to become insufficient. Further, the electrical connection of the leading electrodes to the wiring pattern on the printed circuit plate results in a complicated electric wiring arrangement.